Spirited Beginnings
by turbomagnus
Summary: :Power Rangers Literati 1: New Rangers, new zords, new enemies. But some things never change, they're still 'a team of teenagers with attitudes.'
1. A Walk In The Woods

Disclaimer: While I don't own the overall concept of Power Rangers, Zords, and all else that goes with it, I, along with the friends that are involved with the story, do own Power Rangers Literati itself and its own componants.

* * *

Power Rangers Literati  
"Spirited Beginnings"  
'Part One, A Walk In The Woods'  
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

* * *

It was an ordinary day... They usually are until something happens. We've all known each other for years... I barely even remember how most of us met. I don't even remember why we were all out in the woods that day, I just remember that being the last ordinary day we had...

* * *

"Come on, you two, if we can't seperate from the group to have time alone, neither can you!"

"Shut up, J.T."

J.T. ran a hand through his dark hair, "Amanda, you should know by now that there's only three times I shut up and this isn't one of them."

Setting her long blonde hair swaying, Amanda turned her head to face one of the other girls in the group, "Jessica, do something about your boyfriend."

Under her own head of fire red hair, Jessica smiled, "And if I do, in two minutes you'll be complaining about how I do it."

Jon groaned, "Do you all mind? I wanna get this hike done with and get back home; I got things to do..."

J.T. leaned over and whispered to Amanda, "You actually wanted to go out with him at one time?"

"Do I have to bring up your past?"

"You fight dirty."

"Learned it from you."

From ahead of the five, two other people looked back.

"Come on, you guys," the guy said, "We're almost there."

"On our way, Justin," Jessica answered.

The other one, a girl, added, "It's just over the next hill."

"We're coming, Yolanda," the last member of the group, Daniel, replied.

* * *

That's us as we were. Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, we weren't exactly the 'normal' demographic, but we got along ok... well, Jon Maxwell had always been a bit of an outsider, but the rest of us did.

I'm the one in the black jeans and jacket, with the hair to match, J.T., short for John Thomas, and yes, I have heard all the comments about my names. Even though I was one of the younger ones in the group, I was usually the leader because of my personality.

The girl in blue jeans and a denim jacket with the red hair is Jessica, my girlfriend. The three times I shut up I mentioned that day are when I'm eating, when I'm sleeping, and when Jessica and I are kissing... and the first two aren't set in stone.

The blonde girl is Amanda, and if it looks like she does most of her shopping in a new-age catalog... well, that's because she does, she's a wiccan. That doesn't bother me... it's more the unstoppable flow of Lord of The Rings comments that does that.

Her boyfriend is Daniel, and no, that's not grease on his face, he's black. One of the most enjoyable days in my life was when I got to see the look on Amanda's parents' faces when they met Daniel. Dan's either certifiably insane or has a serious problem with 'real life', and not even Amanda knows which it is.

The last girl in the group is Yolanda. In a way she's Amanda without the temper, unfortunately she's just as scary in her own way. Where Amanda's the overt scary, Yolanda is the hidden scary.

Justin is the 'normal' one of the bunch, but he's an okay guy anyway. He puts up with the rest of us, which means he has patience to put saints to the test.

The last member of the group is Jon, who like I said didn't always fit in with the rest of us. We never knew why, just that there was always something about him that seperated him from us... then we found out what it was...

* * *

"Woah..."

"Yep, that about sums it up," J.T. commented.

'It' was a large stone circle in the middle of the woods, divided into seven parts, that seemed to be untouched by man or nature. On each of the sections was a symbol of some kind.

Justin looked at them, "Amanda, Yolanda, you're the wiccans... what do you make of it all?"

Yolanda shrugged, "Like I said before, I don't recognize any of it."

Amanda shook her head, "Nothing I've ever seen before."

While they had been speaking, J.T. had knelt to get a closer look at the circle.

"This... is so... cool," he muttered

Amanda groaned, "Is that your professional opinion, Captain Kirk?"

"Nope... Professionally, my opinion is 'I don't have a clue what it is either'."

"So..." Jon began, "What do we do?"

"Well," J.T. answered, "We could try touching it..."

As he was saying that, he was reaching out. When his hand made contact with the circle, it caved in and a beam of light shot up, blinding the seven of them before they passed out. After they finally regained consciousness, hours later, Daniel shook his head...

"I've heard of nightmares... but in the middle of the day?"

J.T. groaned and put a hand to his forehead, "What in the name of Stan Lee happened?"

"I think some kind of gases or something knocked us out when that thing caved in," Jon answered.

"I don't know about you guys," Amanda said as she and the others made their way to their feet, "But I'm ready to go home and rinse this dirt and stuff off..."

"Yeah," Yolanda added, "Good idea."

The others had started walking, so they didn't see Jon hanging back, nor did they see his eyes flash a dark purple...


	2. The Awakenings Begin

Power Rangers Literati  
"Spirited Beginnings"  
'Part Two, The Awakenings Begin'  
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

* * *

Highway 2 is THE store in Scenic City, books, movies, musics, video games, anime and manga along with the toys from them, even music instruments. With the employee discount, working there is considered one step away from heaven. Working there with your friends is considered a half-step closer, though. Working there, with your friends, on a slow day with no customers, well... as close as you can get without losing anything.

Justin groaned from behind the counter, "Not again..."

The store's speaker system began playing 'Great Balls of Fire', which was what had become dubbed as a 'warning song'. That meant that when it started to play, J.T. was up to something, and if it was in the store, Justin knew what it was. He only hoped the teen didn't damage any merchandise...

In the music section, Amanda was throwing CDs in their cases to J.T., who was catching them and sticking them in their places while singing and dancing along to the song.

It caught everyone off guard when J.T. growled, then let loose a roar.

Amanda stopped before another throw, "What was that for?"

J.T. shook his head, "I don't know... I've been having the urge to do that all day, ever since that dream I had last night."

The CD fell into the box it had just been taken out of, "Dream?"

"Yeah, it was weird, even for me... I dreamt I was this giant black dragon, and there were these other colored people and animals with me..."

"Was one of them a witch dressed in yellow?"

"Yeah," J.T. asked, shocked, "How did you...?"

Daniel leaned over the rack, "A blue demon?"

J.T. laughed to cover up the nervousness that was beginning to develop, "What, you dreamed you were Nightcrawler or something?"

Yolanda had been in the next aisle over helping Daniel stock there, so she added, "What about a pink siren?"

"You know... I saw the same things in my dream, only I was... get this; a green phoenix," Jessica added as she sat down the box of CDs she had brought out from the back to be stocked.

Justin had left the counter to tell J.T. to behave and so had caught the conversation, "And a red knight..."

Jon didn't walk, he more like swaggered up to the others, "And then the good fairy came down from the sky to give you all candy? Come on, guys, what? Eat some bad pizza or something?"

One of the reasons J.T. filled the 'leader' role of the group was because of his drive, that was also the reason he was the shift manager at Highway 2...

"Maxwell, you're two hours late... with no excuse..."

"I had better things to do," Jon answered dismissively.

"Jon, you're usually pretty good about being here on time, but if you start slipping... you might have better things to do elsewhere, but you won't have anything to do here."

* * *

In a citadel deep within the mountains outside Scenic City, the sorceror known as Malleus Maleficarum, the Witch Hammer, ponders the recent turn of events...

"So... Once again the Power has been awakened..."

With a flair of the volumous sleeves of his robe, Malleus sat before a large circle and waved his hand across it, causing it to show Highway 2...

* * *

"Damn," Daniel swore, "I'm gonna be late again!"

Stopping only long enough to grab his pack from behind the counter, Daniel was running out the door.

J.T. looked over at Amanda, "And you say I'm not all there?"

"Shut. Up. Magnus."

Jon crossed his arms and glared, "You'll get on my case for being late, but not his?"

Turning to face him, J.T. hit Jon with his own glare, one that had a lot more practice thanks to glare-downs between him and Amanda, "That's because YOU were late getting HERE, where I'm in charge and in trouble when you're late. HE's late getting to the college, where HE's the only one in trouble for him being late."

"So you're not just a jerk, you're a self-serving jerk?" Jon asked sarcasticly.

"You know what, Jon? Why don't you just go home, take a sick day - because we're rapidly getting sick of your attitude today," Amanda said.

"Fine, I have better things to do than hang around you guys anyway!" Jon said, walking toward the door.

"'We are not!'" Amanda joked.

The others were so busy laughing at Amanda's recollection of MASH jokes that none of them noticed J.T. put his hand to his forehead and wince...

While his eyes flashed black.

* * *

"Darkness resides in this one... It is making its way out, soon to be unleashed..."

With another wave of his hand, the view changed to Daniel at college, being reprimanded by his teacher for being late to class, but Malleus' attention was not on Daniel himself, but on another student in the class, one laughing at Daniel's misfortune...

* * *

Marius Orbensky was the best student in class, in his opinion - or at least he would be if it wasn't for Daniel Curtindolph who went out of his way to show Marius up, again, in his opinion. As far as Daniel was concerned, he and Marius were both top students and it didn't matter who was best. As far as Marius was concerned, each day was a new chance to prove he was better than Daniel at EVERYTHING.

"...Murphy, Ninety-eight; McMicheals, ninety-nine; Orbensky, one-hundred; Curtindolph, one-hundred. Those who scored less than an eighty on this test, please stay after class."

"Looks like cheating pays off, Curtindolph," Marius hissed under his breath.

Daniel, in a show of infinate wit, rolled his eyes and tucked his books back in his pack. Closing his eyes slightly, the blue glow coming from them was easily mistaken for light shining in the window of the classroom...


	3. Spirits Unleashed

Power Rangers Literati  
"Spirited Beginnings"  
'Part Three, Spirits Unleashed'  
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

* * *

Jessica's lived down the street from me ever since she moved to Scenic City. I'm not gonna lie and say we hit it off immediately, we didn't get along at all at first, mainly because we were too much alike in personality; we're both stubborn people who have to go our own way. The biggest difference is that I'm more of a protector than she is. What that means is that I innately need to stand between those I care about, friends, family, more, and harm. I read somewhere that dragons and gargoyles are protective creatures, they scare away anything less fearsome than they are and return any harm done to those under their protection to the harmer many times over...

* * *

J.T. and Jessica were walking down the bank of a creek, the water reflecting the fading sun's ruby hues. With her head on his shoulder and her eyes closed, J.T. didn't see Jessica's normally blue eyes turn green for a moment.

"'It's enough for this restless warrior, just to be with you,'" J.T. sang gently.

"Pathetic," A voice commented from the growing darkness.

With an annoyed look, J.T. slipped his arm from around Jessica's waist and turned in the direction of the voice. Jessica, for her part, shook her head and turned to see what J.T. was looking at.

The figure wore a uniform of dark purple, with a triangular shaped shield covering its chest, in its hand it carried a large halbard. J.T. had just one thing to say...

"Spandex?"

"It's not spandex," the figure replied.

"It looks more like lycra to me," Jessica added.

"No," J.T. disagreed, "I'm sure that's spandex."

"Ahem."

J.T. looked back at the figure from his discussion with Jessica, "Oh, sorry, you wanted something, Spandex-boy?"

With a twirl of his halbard, the figure dropped into a fighting stance, "You can call me the Dark Ranger... and I want you dead!"

J.T... laughed.

"Nice routine, but I don't think there's any openings on the high school or college cheerleading squads, and if you want to kill me you'll have to get in line."

"Die," Dark Ranger said, swinging his halbard.

J.T. jumped in the air just high enough to avoid it, then lashed out with his foot, connecting on Dark Ranger's chestplate. With a flash of sparks, Dark Ranger was thrown backwards. Climbing to his feet, Dark Ranger swung his halbard down and to the side.

"So, you've already awakened. Good, that will make it that much more enjoyable when I draw the Power from your corpse."

"Geez, where'd you learn to talk? 'Stereotypical Villian Speeches 101'?"

Dark Ranger ran towards J.T., bringing his Halbard up in a strike. This time, J.T. didn't dodge, he countered by grabbing the halbard and locking it under his arm before twisting to break Dark Ranger's grip. Throwing the halbard into a tree, he looked at Dark Ranger and narrowed his eyes.

"You want me dead... You'll have to earn it."

"Fine by me," Dark Ranger responded, lunging at J.T.

J.T. grabbed Dark Ranger's hands before he could touch him. For several minutes, the two grappled, neither giving ground. Jessica watched, stunned, from the side.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes, I will destroy you. I'll draw the Power from you, then from your pretty little girlfriend..."

There was a snarl as J.T.'s eyes flashed black...

"No."

The next thing J.T. knew, he was roaring and it felt as if he was being turned inside out. When his mind cleared, he was looking at Dark Ranger through a visor. Each event of the night seemed to be stunning Jessica more and more. Looking at J.T., he now wore a uniform similar to that Dark Ranger was wearing, black instead of purple, a gold shield instead of black, and the helmet looked stylized like a dragon.

"No and never," J.T. said as he shifted his weight with a twist to the side and sent Dark Ranger flying through the air.

Unfortunately, where he had thrown Dark Ranger was towards the tree where he had thrown his halbard before. Reclaiming his weapon, Dark Ranger charged towards J.T. and swung it in a decapitating move. Instinctively, J.T. defended himself, causing a large nodachi to appear in his hands to block the halbard.

"Nice. Now we're even."

"Not at all," Dark Ranger snapped, drawing a pistol from a holster on his belt and firing it at...

"JESSICA!"

J.T. was surprised when the laser bolt hit Jessica and she suddenly exploded in a flair of green light. As it faded, she was garbed in her own uniform, dark green with silver armor protecting her full torso instead of just the chestplate of the others, the stylization of her helmet that of a bird.

"Now it's my turn," Jessica said, focusing. After a moment, a bow appeared in her hand, pulling back the string, a shaft of green energy was formed, "Nice."

She aimed the shaft at Dark Ranger and released it, then repeated the actions twice more, each time throwing him back farther.

J.T. ran over and put a gloved hand on her shoulder, "You alright?"

"Uhh... I feel like I rode the Genie, but other than that, I'm okay."

Nodding, J.T. turned back to face Dark Ranger, "Let's finish this."

Using his halbard for support, Dark Ranger stood up, "Let's not."

Then Dark Ranger disappeared in a flash of purple.

* * *

Marius was walking across the college grounds when a figure appeared in a flash of purple.

"Who are you?"

"Let's just say someone who represents someone willing to help you."

Marius looked at Dark Ranger a moment, "With what?"

Dark Ranger held out his hand and an image of Daniel appeared standing on it, then he closed his hand and it vanished, "Him."

"I'm listening..."


	4. Spirits Together

Power Rangers Literati  
"Spirited Beginnings"  
'Part Four, Spirits Together'  
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

* * *

According to some beliefs, there is a great power within each of us, waiting to be set free. People that believe that would probably be surprised to learn how right they are.

* * *

It was supposed to be a simple date-night. If there is such a thing. She, Amanda mused, was supposed to be out with Daniel: Alone. Not the two of them along with Justin all gathered at Yolanda's watching the news. She hated the news. But then, seeing a giant metal scorpion and an equally large humanoid spider laying waste to the city DID give the news some redeeming qualities. However, that still left Amanda with one very important question...

"Where the hell are J.T. and Jessica?"

The door opened to reveal two uniformed and armored figures, one in black the other in green, standing in the doorway, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you... Then again, you're convinced Aragorn and Legolas are married and are the voices in your head, so you might..."

"What the...?"

The one in black reached up to his neck to release the clasps before lifting his helmet off and shaking his head, "You know, if ten years ago, when the first Power Rangers appeared in Angel Grove, someone had said that a decade later it would be highly likely that I'd be one myself... I would have thrown cafeteria food at them."

Nearly everyone in the room blinked as one.

"You... You're... What?'

J.T. rolled his eyes while Jessica took off her own helmet, "As near as I can gather, I, we are Power Rangers."

Jessica pointed to the TV, "Unless I miss my guess, that's Dark Ranger... He was trying to kill us earlier."

"Great," Yolanda said with a wave of her hand, "Go fight him."

"Actually," J.T. shrugged, "I think you guys are the rest of the team."

Amanda glared at him, "No. I am not running around in pink spandex with a miniskirt."

"It's not spandex."

"It's spandex."

"It's not spandex."

"What is it then, Lycra?"

Jessica groaned, then reached over and hit J.T. on the back of the head, "Didn't we go through this already?"

Daniel looked at J.T., "Okay, if we're Power Rangers, where are our morphers?"

J.T. met his eyes, "You know all those barriers you've put up over your life? The ones to hide your real self, the ones to keep from doing things you might regret?"

"Yeah?"

"Forget 'em."

Justin shook his head, "You know, the city IS being destroyed, people."

Redonning his helmet, J.T. looked at the others, "When you're ready... I'm pretty sure we'll need the help."

"And how do we get there?" Jessica asked, putting on her own helmet.

"How are you at the cross-town dash?"

* * *

"You know, from the times I saw them on the news, most groups of Rangers have some kind of bikes or teleportation."

Jessica shook her head as they ran, "Great, I'm sure you'd get a discount at the Suzuki store if you explained that you were a Power Ranger!"

Reaching downtown, the two almost skidded to a stop.

"That thing's at least twenty stories tall... How the hell do we fight it?"

"With a little bit of help!"

Turning to face the voice, they smiled when they saw the others charging up.

"Justin?"

The Red Ranger nodded, his own triangular chest-shield a gleaming gold, "Took us about five seconds after you guys left before we decided we couldn't let you do this alone."

"Besides," The Yellow Ranger added, trying to adjust her silver torso armor, "I'm not gonna let anyone else kill you before I can."

"Amanda..." J.T. began, "You're wearing... yellow."

Crossing her arms, Amanda glared at J.T. through her visor.

"Hey, at least you got out of the miniskirt... Yolanda's the only girl stuck with one."

"I like it, it's pink," Yolanda countered, wearing her own silver armor.

Unconsciously copying his girlfriend, Daniel crossed his blue-clad arms over his gold chestplate, "You would."

"Uh, guys? Giant things on a rampage? Remember?" There were times Justin couldn't believe his friends.

"Amanda, you, Jessica and I are gonna take on Dark Ranger. Everyone else, squash the spider."

* * *

"You know," Amanda said, swinging her katana-like sword and trying to avoid the scorpion's claws and stinger, "When I said I wanted more exercise, this isn't exactly what I meant!"

Jessica was trying to jam the joints with her arrows, "Hey, don't tell us that, we were on a date, remember?"

J.T., for his part, was trying to hack open the zord to get to Dark Ranger himself, "Less talking, more destroying!"

* * *

"Do you know Peter Parker?" Daniel asked, taking a swing at one of the spider's legs with his Axe.

Justin groaned, "Leave the bad jokes for J.T."

His own sword and Yolanda's daggers were doing about as much damage as Daniel's axe, which wasn't much, unfortunately. This went on for both groups for a time, until Justin reached a conclusion...

"We're not powerful enough to do anything!"

Over trying to subdue the scorpion, J.T. heard the comment through his helmet's communication system, "So what you're saying is, 'We need bigger guns'?"

"Very funneee!" Daniel tried to say before one of the spider's legs hit him just right to send him flying through the air.

"DANIEL!"

Amanda's cry proved needless as a large blue robot caught Daniel in its even larger right hand. At the same time, the scorpion and spider succeeded in knocking the other five Rangers off and onto the ground.

"Umph!" J.T. winced as he hit, then stood up, "You know what I just said about bigger guns?"

"There they are?"

"Exactly, Yellow."

"Don't call me 'Yellow'."

"That doesn't sound right."

Jessica shook her head, "I swear, sometimes you two fight like brother and sister."

"Hey, no need to be insulting!"

"What IS it with you guys? We've got a robot scorpion and a giant spider attacking the town and you're busy arguing with each other!"

Amanda and J.T. both shrugged, then she answered, "It's what we do."

"Look!"

Their eyes following the direction of Yolanda's finger, the new Rangers smiled. Standing alongside the blue demon zord that had caught Daniel were a yellow zord with a metal 'skirt' and staff, pink siren, red knight with a sword, and a large black dragon with a green phoenix perched on it. Behind their visors, the Rangers' eyes flashed again as new knowledge filled their minds. Except for Jessica, who was lifted up by the dragon to her own phoenix, each of the rangers were picked up in the hand or claw of their respective zord and brought to the cockpit.

"Demon Spiritzord, it looks like Hellboy," Daniel commented over the communicators.

"Witch Spiritzord... Doesn't look like it. Where's the pointy hat?" Amanda said.

"Knight Spiritzord, I'm... awfully high up..." Justin winced.

"Siren Spiritzord, I've got a pink robot," Yolanda giggled.

"She scares me. Phoenix Spiritzord, ready for takeoff," Jessica groaned.

"Dragon Spiritzord... Beware my wrath!" J.T. growled, "Now that the playing field's even, let's take 'em apart; target that spider and squash it."

In her own zord, Yolanda was looking at the controls, "What does this button do?"

Pressing it, the Siren Spiritzord released a blast of sonic energy at the spider. Following suit, the others pressed random buttons in their own zords, causing the Witch Spiritzord's staff to fire a beam of ice at the spider, which the Demon followed up by smashing it with its right hand.

"That was easy," Daniel remarked.

"I will not be so easy," Dark Ranger cut in, "Scorpion Spiritzord... BATTLE MODE!"

The bottom half of the Scorpion Spiritzord dropped and shifted into legs, raising the rest up as it changed into a torso, the arms and tail rotated to match as a head rose out of the torso. Two barrels folded out from the tail and fired at the other Spiritzords.

"AHHH!"

Justin blinked, "J.T... What was that for?"

The Dragon turned to face the Knight, "I don't know, I just thought it fit."

The Scorpion opened its claw, "And my claw will fit around your neck," Dark Ranger said as he lunged at the Dragon.

That's when the Witch Spiritzord's staff hit the Scorpion on its Battle Mode head, "Hey, no one kills him but me!"

Then the Scorpion's tail hit the Witch, knocking it backwards.

"Amanda!" Daniel shouted.

"Daniel, you check on Amanda. The rest of us are gonna play exterminator... on that pest."

"Who made you leader?"

"You need two things to be in charge, Justin; no sanity and a complete inability to grasp the gravity of a situation - I have both," J.T. explained.

"You've got a point, you are nuts."

"Thanks... I think - Woah!" J.T. barely moved the Dragon in time to avoid more laser fire from the Scorpion, "Do you mind? I just GOT this thing!"

"You always have been an idiot," Dark Ranger replied, flezing the Scorpion's claws.

Jessica cocked her head to the side, "You talk like you know us..."

It was often stated that amongst them, Justin was the smart one. He proved it again by figuring it out before anyone else, and drawing the Knight's sword when he did.

"He DOES know us! Don't you... Jon?"

"I prefer Dark Ranger, actually. Of course, that won't matter soon, Justin, since you won't be alive to call me anything."

The Scorpion's arm came up in time to block the Knight's sword, leaving an opening that Yolanda and the Siren Spiritzord took advantage of by launching a sonic blast at the Scorpion's back. While the Scorpion was reeling from the attacks, the Phoenix came spiraling in to catch the Scorpion in its undefended front side. Spinning around, the Dragon caught the Scorpion with its tail, knocking it to the ground. Moments after the Scorpion hit, there was a hand at its throat and a much larger hand pulled back menaceingly above it.

"Jon... I get really annoyed when people try to hurt my girlfriend... No, I mean REALLY annoyed... Put one of J.T.'s moods to shame annoyed..."

Inside the Dragon's cockpit, J.T. gulped, "Oh, man... He's dead."

Preparing to prove J.T.'s prediction wrong, the Scorpion's tail stiffened and thrusters extended from the legs.

"Like I told you earlier," Dark Ranger countered, "I have better things to do."

Igniting its thrusters, the Scorpion began to take flight, forcing the Demon to let go or have its arm ripped off. In mid-air, the Scorpion again changed form...

"Now its a jet! Why does he have a freakin' triple-changer?" J.T. barely kept from swearing.

"More importantly, why does Jon get purple? I wanted purple! I'm stuck being yellow!" Amanda complained, bringing the Witch to its feet.

"Because it's DARK purple and black, which is a color combo more suited for a bad guy, Amanda," Jessica groaned.

While the other two girls argued, Yolanda looked around the Siren's cockpit, "Does anyone know what we're supposed to do with these when we're done with them?"


	5. Rangers

Power Rangers Literati  
"Spirited Beginnings"  
'Part Five, Rangers'  
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

* * *

The next day, Highway 2 was the scene of a showdown, six of the employees were gathered in a semi-circle around the seventh. J.T. in black jeans and jacket stood like a tank in the middle of the semi-circle. Flanking him were Jessica, athletic and lithe in blue jeans and green shirt on one side and Amanda, shorter and waif-like as though a pixie on the other, dressed in a purple skirt and shirt with yellow flowers, a yellow scrunchie in her hair. Daniel, in blue jeans and a blue shirt stood next to Amanda, on par in height with J.T. Next to Jessica was Yolanda, wearing pink shorts and a white t-shirt, beside her was Justin in a red t-shirt and black jeans. In the center of the semi-circle was the person they were all facing; Jon's messy blond hair was off-set by his own black jeans and purple heavy metal band t-shirt.

The question they all had for him was finally voiced by Amanda, "Why?"

Jon lifted a hand in a half-shrug, "You still don't understand, do you? This is who I am. What I am."

J.T. growled and took a step forward.

"What are you gonna do, Magnus? You can't exactly fire me without telling the boss why, and if you do tell him you'll blow your little secret. I'm not afraid of you, _Dragon Ranger_."

There was a low rumble in J.T.'s throat as he spoke, "You SHOULD be..."

"When did you take 'Stereotypical Hero 101'?" Jon sneered.

"Get out of here, Jon," Daniel warned, "Before we let him do something we wouldn't regret."

"Fine," Jon said, flipping them a smart-aleck salute, "Be seeing you."

After Jon had left, the others had relaxed and spread out, leaning on shelves and taking seats on the counter.

"You're sure we can't morph and go after him so we can beat him up?"

"Amanda," J.T. said in a mock-British accent, "That would 'ardly be cricket."

"It'd still make me feel better," she grumbled.

"So, what? We're THE Power Rangers now?" Daniel asked.

Amanda brushed a hand through her hair, "I'm not sure I WANT to be, that helmet does bad things to my hair."

Nearly all the others rolled their eyes.

"I don't really think we have a choice in the matter," Jessica commented, "I mean, we don't even know the how and why of us being Rangers, what are we gonna do?"

"I hate it when you're right," Amanda told her.

"So we're stuck?" Justin asked.

"Hey, look at it this way," J.T. shrugged, "We get cool outfits, weapons, and giant robots. It could be worse."

All of the others promptly took their turns hitting J.T. over the head.

"What was that for?"

"You know the rules about saying that!" Jessica said.

"I said it COULD BE worse, not that it COULDN'T BE."

"Oh... In that case... Sorry."

Rolling his eyes, J.T. groaned, "And to think, I could have taken a delivery job at Pizza Hut..."

"Besides," Justin said, "Someone has to handle Jon... and I think that it's a bit out of the police's ability."

"So, I'm in," J.T. said.

"Me too," Jessica added.

"Why do I have this feeling I'm gonna end up being even later for classes?" Daniel wondered, "Oh, well, count me in."

"Why not?" Yolanda asked.

"Being a Power Ranger, okay," Justin commented, "It's the spandex thing that bothers me."

"It's lycra," Amanda said, causing everyone to stare at her, "What? Lycra's funnier."

The fact that she was completely serious caused everyone to continue to stare at her. Their conversation was cut short when the door opened and a black man in black jeans and a multi-colors striped shirt walked in. The Rangers didn't bother jumping to help since this wasn't a customer, it was their boss and he was lax enough not to care as long as they didn't break anything too important.

"Hey, Mr. Z."

The boss shook his head, "Man, J.T., I've told you, don't call me mister."

"Which is exactly why I call you mister."

Mr. Z smiled and started walking to his office, then the news from last night hit him and he looked back at his employees...

'Oh, boy,' he thought, 'Here we go again...'


End file.
